Community leaders are demanding the resignation of a Maine mayor who said Somali immigrants living in his city should "accept our culture and leave your culture at the door.”

Organizers of Maine People's Alliance say the group has collected at least 1,400 signatures calling for Lewiston Mayor Robert E. Macdonald to step down over his remarks in September to the British Broadcasting Corp. that Somali immigrants were costing his city a lot of money, then saying they should ‘‘accept our culture and leave your culture at the door.’’

Somali community leaders said residents in the state’s second-largest city have been welcoming – except for the mayor.

"The remarks are painful, hurtful and display the mayor's ignorance about our community. We demand an apology and a plan from his office on how he will work to unite his city, not further divide it," said Jama Mohamed, Communications Director for Somali Bantu Youth, in a statement to NBC News.